


Uninvited

by Ydnam



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-01
Packaged: 2017-12-28 02:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ydnam/pseuds/Ydnam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Belle asks for help from her friends to protect the town and gets more volunteers than she wants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uninvited

Granny had been kind to her. Dreamy had been as well. They were the first two people in Storybrooke that Belle thought of consulting after the pirate ship had disappeared from sight. She was bound to need help, she reasoned. Even if Rumple had designed whatever protection so that it could be worked by one person alone someone would still need to explain things to the townspeople and they had no reason to trust her. Most of them, she was certain, didn’t even know her name.

Granny did know her, and Granny and Ruby were something of a unit and both well-liked in Storybrooke as far as Belle knew. And even if she wasn’t quite ready to forgive Ruby for leaving her in the care of that horrid nurse in the hospital another ally certainly could come in handy. And Dreamy brought with him the other dwarves. So she had called Granny and Dreamy and asked them to meet her in the library before heading there herself.

Once inside her library, Belle had sighed at the layer of dust that had settled over everything while she hadn’t been herself. The person Regina made her remember being had barely known the library existed and she certainly hadn’t been able to take care of anything here while she was trapped in the hospital without memories or even a name of her own. She’d worked so hard, once it was hers, to make the library a welcoming place. It was amazing how quickly it had shown signs of abandonment. The dust could wait. What Rumple had charged her with could not. 

She expected Granny to bring Ruby with her. She expected anywhere between 1 and 7 dwarves. She hadn’t expected Archie and she certainly hadn’t expected any fairies. 

“Dr. Hopper,” Belle greeted him. The fairy could wait. At least Archie she knew. She’d saved him from Hook’s ship before everything went wrong and even if there hadn’t been time to get truly become acquainted since then there was still something of a bond there.

“I, ah, was at the diner when you called,” he explained. “Mrs. Lucas told me you might need help. So I came.”

“Thank you.” Her task wasn’t terribly complicated and Rumple had been nothing if not detailed in his instructions. She could manage it herself. It was the rest of it, convincing the townspeople that what she was doing was right, that could prove problematic if she weren’t careful. She knew how they felt about Rumplestiltskin. She didn’t blame them. She knew what he was, and she knew who he was, just as well as they did. She had just been given the incredibly rare opportunity to see more of him than he would ever been willing to show to others. 

“I brought my brothers,” Dreamy said with a shrug. 

“Thank you, Dreamy.”

“Grumpy.”

Belle frowned. “I don’t think that suits you as well.”

“Leroy then.”

“Thank you, Leroy.”

“Any time you need help, sister, you know where to find me.”

Granny had simply hefted her crossbow in greeting and Ruby had flashed a smile. That left one more visitor to her library.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” Belle told the Blue Fairy. 

“I heard you might need assistance,” Blue said. “So I’m here to help.”

“I think I’ve all the help I require,” Belle said softly, gesturing at the others.

“None of them have magic.” 

“I have all the magic I need,” Belle answered. Rumplestiltskin had set things up carefully and she had access to all she would require. “No need for any fairy involvement. I imagine it would only complicate matters.”

“Fairy magic helped you once today,” Blue pointed out. “You remember yourself now, don’t you?”

“I do remember myself,” Belle answered. “Else we wouldn’t be here in my library. And I remember that without Leroy’s request you wouldn’t have offered me any assistance at all. You would have left me as I was.”

“I couldn’t interfere with what the Dark One-,” Blue began.

“You’re trying to interfere right now,” Belle cut her off. “And saving me wouldn’t have been interfering in any case. Please, just go. I’ve no need of fairies at the moment. We can discuss this later. For now I have work to do. Someone has to protect this town. Everyone in this town. There are things and people coming and we need to be prepared.”

“You cannot order me about!”

“I asked you,” Belle corrected. “I even said please.”

“Who do you think you are?”

“I think I’m someone trying to save this town.”

It was Archie who finally stepped forward. “Mother Superior. Er. Blue? Perhaps you could help me? To explain things to the others? There are a lot of people in this town. They’ll be nervous. We’re all nervous.” He placed a gentle hand on the fairy’s elbow and steered her out the door.

The dwarves shifted awkwardly on their feet. Ruby looked to Granny for guidance. Granny, for her part, appeared to be stifling a laugh. 

“Don’t pay her any mind, girl,” Granny said. “Hopper’ll keep her distracted until you do what needs doing and we’ll smooth things over later if we need to.”

Belle nodded. “Then let’s get to work.”


End file.
